January 28, 2007 Scientists traverse East Antarctica for ice cores By Peter Rejcek Sun staff Antarctic science requires many different methods in the pursuit of knowledge about the seventh continent and its place in the global ecosystem. The deeply browned face and ruddy cheeks of Paul Mayewski tell a story of scientists who understand the value of spending extended time in the environment they study. “That’s very important,” said Mayewski, the director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. “It allows the scientists to develop, not just a scientific explanation, but an intuition about what the environment is like. That’s what we do: we’re interpreting the envi- Photos by Dan Dixon / Special to The Antarctic Sun ronment. If you don’t live in it, spend a lot of time in it, it’s very hard to do.” Above, Brian Welch Mayewski and colleagues from three other operates the ITASE institutions completed a month-long overland deep radar system traverse of a short stretch of East Antarctica during the group’s in mid-January as part of the United States traverse of East component of the International Trans Antarctic Antarctica. The ITASE Scientific Expedition (ITASE). Twenty nations tractor train, left, comprise ITASE, a cooperative effort to describe began the journey from Taylor Dome this and understand Antarctic environmental change season. See ITASE on page 8 Evans makes historic Water, water everywhere return to Mount Vinson By Steve Martaindale Sun staff Looking back 40 years, John Evans tells the story that conquering Antarctica’s tallest peak was made possible through a decision based on a nation’s pride. Looking back less than four weeks, he tells the story of an attempted re-conquest that came down to swallowing one’s individual pride. Evans was the chief scientist on a 10-man expe- See MOUNT on page 10 Quote of the Week Inside Lightning “I don’t know why I’d strikes Peter Rejcek / The Antarctic Sun Open water returns to the Cape Royds Adélie penguin rookery. The calving of ever question a DA.” Page 4 giant icebergs in 2000 kept the sea ice from blowing out of McMurdo Sound. – Woman receiving advice from Pilots meet The ice caused a significant decline in the colony’s population because of the Hillary dining hall attendant. great distance from Cape Royds to the ice edge. The icebergs are now gone. Page 7 AntarcticSun.usap.gov 2 • The Antarctic Sun January 28, 2007 At the ice edge Cold, hard facts Mount Vinson The mountain is located about 750 miles from the South Pole. It is about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. Its summit sits 16,066 feet above sea level, making it Antarctica’s tallest mountain. The mountain was named after Carl Vinson, a U.S. Congressman Photos by Peter Rejcek / The Antarctic Sun from Georgia who was a key sup- porter of funding for Antarctic research. The annual sea ice loos- ened its grip on Ross Mount Vinson is also called Vinson Island a little this summer, Massif. The word massif is taken with open water reach- from French and refers to a large ing about 6 miles from mountain or compact group of McMurdo Station. This connected mountains that form an has allowed marine ani- independent portion of a range. mals to gain easier access to the area, such as orca Mount Vinson is part of the Sentinel and minke whales spotted Range, a large Antarctic mountain near the ice edge. range that stretches out 115 miles long by 15 to 30 miles wide. Source: wikipedia.org, Geographic Names of the Antarctic The Antarctic Sun is funded by the National Level 1 Comix Matt Davidson Science Foundation as part of the United States Antarctic Program (OPP-000373). Its primary audience is U.S. Antarctic Program participants, their families, and their friends. NSF reviews and approves material before publication, but opinions and conclusions expressed in The Sun are not necessarily those of the Foundation. Use: Reproduction is encouraged with acknowledgment of source and author. Senior Editor: Peter Rejcek Editors: Steven Profaizer, Steve Martaindale Copy Editors: Ben Bachelder, Traci Macnamara, Cori Manka, Rob Jones, Melanie Miller, Erin Popelka, Bethany Profaizer Publisher: Valerie Carroll, Communications manager, RPSC Contributions are welcome. Contact The Sun at [email protected]. In McMurdo, visit our office in Building 155 or dial 2407. Web address: AntarcticSun.usap.gov Subscribe: Click on the link on the right side of the homepage and follow the directions. January 28, 2007 The Antarctic Sun • 3 American, Kiwi visitors get up close to research A 50th anniversary celebra- tion for Scott Base drew visiting dignitaries from New Zealand and the United States, which share a close relationship in the Antarctic partly due to the proximity of the countries’ two main stations. In addition to attending the celebration on Jan. 20 at Scott Base, the American delega- tion – which included National Science Foundation Director Arden Bement – toured the science and support facilities at McMurdo Station and visited several scientists in the field. The other Americans in the party included William McCormick, U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, along with two members of the U.S. State Department, Claudia McMurray, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and Glyn Photos by Peter Rejcek / The Antarctic Sun Davies, deputy assistant secre- Scientist Bruce Marsh, kneeling, describes his work to Bement, center, and McMurray while the rest of his tary of East Asian and Pacific science team looks on at right. Marsh is studying planetary magmatism in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. His Affairs. group creates three-dimensional maps to assist in their research. Manager of USAP Science Field Support, Brian Johnson, far right, Crary Science and Engineering Center supervisor Cara Sucher explains how his department operates to a group of New Zealand and gives a tour of McMurdo Station’s main science building to, from American dignitaries in front of the Berg Field Center on Jan. 20. left, McMurray, Clark, her husband Peter Davis and Davies on New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, center, looks on. Jan. 20. Scientist Andrew Nigel Watson, execu- Fountain, left, provides tive director of the commentary about New Zealand Antarctic the ecosystem of the Heritage Trust, gives the McMurdo Dry Valleys visiting American del- to Bement during a heli- egation a tour of the res- copter ride that included toration work under way visits to several field at Ernest Shackleton’s camps on Jan. 21. historic hut at Cape Royds on Jan. 21. 4 • The Antarctic Sun January 28, 2007 Network uses radio waves to log lightning By Peter Rejcek Sun staff Scientists creating a network to triangu- late and pinpoint lightning strikes around the world are using a very narrow band of radio waves to detect the phenomena over long distances. The small network of very low frequen- cy (VLF) receivers includes stations in the Antarctic, including at Palmer Station. VLF generally refers to radio frequencies in the range of 3 to 30 kilohertz. Stanford University graduate student Ryan Said is building the lightning detec- tion and geo-location network as part of his Ph.D. thesis for the VLF Research Group, one of several groups in the Space, Telecommunications and Radioscience (STAR) Laboratory, a research team within the Department of Electrical Engineering Courtesy of Ryan Said / Special to The Antarctic Sun at the university. Umran Inan is the director of the lab and the principal investigator for the lightning triangulation program. Every lightning strike generates a strong electromagnetic pulse, according Above, Ryan Said kneels by an array antenna to Said. He takes the recorded radio pulses near Palmer Station in 2004. Said’s network created by an individual lightning strike of very low frequency receivers uses the elec- from three or more geographically separate tromagnetic pulse generated by a lightning receiver stations to triangulate its location, strike to triangulate the strike’s location. he explained. “So, with our receiver at Palmer, another receiver in Alaska, and a third receiver in Indiana, I can detect and triangulate most Courtesy of NOAA lightning activity in the United States,” These particles then separate. The upper from the lightning strike that travels along he said during e-mail and phone inter- portion of the cloud acquires a net positive the ionosphere (which exists along the views. “At Palmer, with the incredibly charge, and the lower portion of the cloud inner edge of the magnetosphere) will quiet noise environment, we can detect becomes negatively charged. This separa- interact with these trapped particles, essen- most cloud-to-ground lightning flashes as tion produces enormous electrical potential tially driving them deep enough into the far as Canada.” both within the cloud and between the atmosphere to cause the LEP event. In Pinpointing lightning strikes is not new. cloud and ground. Eventually the electri- some limited cases, the lightning geo- The U.S. National Lightning Detection cal resistance in the air breaks down and a location system can detect the electron Network, operated by a commercial busi- flash begins. precipitation. ness called Vaisala, uses more than 100 The network also offers further opportu- More receivers are planned for the net- ground-based sensors to monitor lightning nities for atmospheric research, according work. Another VLF Research Group grad- continuously across the continental United to Said. uate student, Andrew Gibby, will travel to States. The system is used for everything “From a scientific research standpoint, the Antarctic Peninsula later this year to from air traffic control to help with fore- lightning strikes are a source of several install a parallel antenna and data receiver casting severe weather.